Blurb[]
- From solicitations
- What lies at the literal end of the universe? The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise are going to find out when they try to discover how entire star systems can simply vanish!
Summary[]
The Enterprise finds multiple star systems missing without a trace. The crew plot a course to the next likely target and are trapped within a vortex that delivers them to a seemingly empty realm billions of years in the future. Closer inspection reveals the missing star systems, contained within a massive artificial structure fifty light-years in diameter. While a landing party explores the structure’s inner surface, the ship and crew are subjected to rapid aging, mutation, and time-dilation. Pike, Number One, and Spock make contact with the structure's inhabitants, noncorporeal beings who are the only remaining life in the universe. They have harvested numerous uninhabited star systems from across space and time in an effort to stop the entropy that will soon destroy all known existence. However, their methods destabilized the systems, which all imploded without effect. The team counsels the beings to accept the end as a normal part of life and to return the Enterprise to its own time and place. The return trip restores the surviving crew to normalcy, but more than a quarter of the crew died and many systems were crippled by the future's entropic effects. The ship sets a course for home for repairs and resupply. Number One continues to pass up promotions, singularly focusing on the Enterprise's XO position.
References[]
Characters[]
- Robert April • Sarah April • Lavalle • N'a'tt'n'a'i • Namid • Number One • Palmer • Christopher Pike • Schneider • Shostov • Spock
Starships and vehicles[]
Locations[]
- Alpha Eridani • Persius Minor • Sigma Delta
- Referenced only
- Beta Reticuli • Earth • Starbase 11
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
- Referenced only
- Klingon Empire
Other references[]
- bridge • captain • chronometer • commander • communicator • drydock • engineering • ensign • far future • galaxy • lieutenant • lithium • navigation beacon • navigator • nova • Number one • parsec • pattern buffer • personal log • planet • science officer • sensor • sickbay • star • starbase • star system • telepathy • time travel • transporter • transporter chief • transporter room • tricorder • warp factor • warp nacelle
Appendices[]
Cover without titles
Related stories[]
Timeline[]
This story is set three years into Number One's posting on the Enterprise, which was described in "Shadows of the Past" has having begun five years after her first mission aboard the ship as depicted in "Shakedown". Given "Shakedown" portrayed the shakedown cruise of the Enterprise, and this issue, eight years later, shows April still in command, it must be set near to the end of April's captaincy, which concluded in 2251.
The mid section of the story is set approximately one hundred billion years in the future, at the end of the universe.
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: Shadows of the Past |
TOS comics Crew |
Next comic: Last issue in the miniseries |
| Previous story: Shadows of the Past |
Stories by: John Byrne |
Next story: Schism, Issue 1 Romulans: Schism |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: Aftershock |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Final Frontier Hope and a Common Future |
| The above chronology placements are based on the primary placement in 2251. The Memory Beta Chronology places events from this story in 1 other timeframe(s): | ||
| Previous adventure: Our Million-Year Mission |
100000000000 Pages 8-21 |
Next adventure: Latest Star Trek story |
Images[]
External link[]
- The Ends of Eternity article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.